Very Few Events But…
There are no record conventions and only one comicon like event in Vancouver, MiniComi, but if you’re in the National Capital and planning to attend the Canada Day celebrations you should note that the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau is hosting an exhibition celebrating Canadian pop and rock.
Retro – Popular Music in Canada from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s will be on display until Jan 18th, 2026 every day from 9am to 5pm and with extended hours to 7pm on Thursdays and Canada Day itself.
Admission information can be found by clicking here and admission is free to kids aged 17 and younger but a ticket be claimed in their name via the link provided. And note that holders of the Canada Strong Pass that are aged 18 to 24 are entitled to a 50% discount on admission via this form as well.
It also appears that admission is free on Thursday nights from 6 to 7pm and on Canada Day from 9am to 7pm according to the ticket purchasing site. And when it comes to transit, Route 8 services the venue at bus stop number 1940, operating from Pimisi Station in Ottawa on OC Transpo and multiple bus routes on STO also service the museum in the city of Gatineau itself, via bus stop numbers 2612 and 2618.
Enjoy your weekend and Canada. Stay safe and hydrated.
Two Record Conventions and One Comicon
There will be two free record conventions in the Toronto Area, one comicon in Belleville, and all of this weekend’s events will be occurring on Sunday, June 22nd, 2025:
The Outdoor Record Show will be held at the Tranzac Club from 9am to 1pm and admission will be free.
This venue is a seven minute walk from either the Bathurst Subway Station or Spadina Subway Station and it is also a minute away from bus stop numbers 498 and 499, whose busses also service the 511 streetcar on Bathurst via stops 96 and 15518.
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The Bowmanvillle CD and Record Show will be hosted by the Memorial Park Clubhouse from 10am to 4pm and this is also a free event.
The nearest bus stop to the venue, stop number 1499, is an eight minute walk away. And it is serviced by Route 902 on Durham Region Transit, whose site does have a trip planner.
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The Belleville Comicon will be held at the Quinte Curling Club from 10am to 3pm and admission will be $5 or free for kids 12 and under.
A bus stop serviced by Route 8 on Belleville Transit is across the street from the venue.
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Please not that cash may be preferred at these events and that a contest is being held on Amazon.ca for Prime Members until July 11th, 2025 for numerous prizes: Click here for more details on GiftMania.
By the way, Prime Day will be held from the 8th to the 11th of July at Amazon.ca but early deals are already available.
This Weekend’s Events
There will be two major, two day comicon events in Eastern Canada, as well as one pop up record show.
The first comicon event will be East Coast Comic Expo at the Moncton Coliseum on June 13th and 14th, 2025.
Click here for ticket information. And this venue is serviced by Route 50 via bus stop number T5018 and Route 60 via bus stop number M6004 on Codiac Transpo.
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The second comicon event will be Yeticon on June 14th and 15th, 2025 at the Blue Mountain Village Conference Centre.
Click here for ticket information. And the venue is serviced by the Blue Mountain Village Link from Collingwood and Flixbus 2711 from Collingwood, Toronto and multiple communities in the general area.
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The Burlington Record Pop Up Show will be occurring from 10am to 3pm at the Halton Naval Association and admission will be a donation to this association.
The nearest bus stop to this venue are 204 and 207, which is serviced by multiple routes on Burlington Transit, some from the Burlington Go Station, like Routes 6 and 52.
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Please note that cash may be preferred at these events. And that the 15,000 Bonus PC Optimum points offer on the purchase of $100 Google Play Gift Cards at participating Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix stores will end on Friday, the 13th of June, 2025.
By the way, the NXNE Music Festival will be starting today and ending on Sunday in Toronto. Enjoy.
This Weekend’s Events.
There will be a record convention, two collectibles events and a two day comic book arts festival this weekend, primarily in the Golden Horseshoe of the province of Ontario (update – additional event added).
The St. Catharines Record Show will be held on Sunday, the 8th of June at the Grantham Optimist Youth Center from 10am to 4pm and admission will be $5.
The nearest bus stops to the venue are 303 and 306, both of which are serviced by Route 417 on Niagara Transit.
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The Burlington Collector’s Con will be hosted by the Holiday Inn Burlington Conference Centre on Sunday, June 8th 2025 as well, from 10am to 4pm.
Admission information is available by clicking here. And the nearest bus stops to the venue are 177 and 3027, which are serviced by Route 80 from the Burlington Go Station on Burlington Transit.
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And the two day Toronto Comic Arts Festival will be held on Saturday the 7th of June, 2025 and Sunday the 8th of June, 2025 at the Mattamy Athletic Center, with free admission.
The venue is serviced by Street Car Route 506 at stops numbers 751 and 752 and alternatively is also a three minute walk from College Station.
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Outside of the Golden Horseshoe, a major collectibles event will be occurring near Montreal, in Kahnawake:
The KTown Collectibles Expo will be hosted by Mohawk Bingo on Sunday, June 8th, 2025, from 10am to 5pm, and admission will be $5 or free for kids 10 and under.
The venue is serviced by multiple bus routes on Exo via bus stop numbers 78606 and 78275, many of which are accessible from the Angrignon Metro Station.
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Please note that cash may be preferred at these events so you might want to take note of what ATMs are available to you at the above venues.
One Record Show But Four Comicon & More
Although there will only be one record show this weekend, there will be four comicons and a collectibles show. And two of these events will be weekend long.
The first three day event will be Y-CON at the Yarmouth Mariners Center from May 30th to June 1st, 2025.
Ticket information can be found by clicking here. And the nearest bus stop is a two minute walk away at the Canadian Tire and although the town’s transit services are free they do not operate on Sundays.
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The second three day event, also occurring from May 30th to June 1st, will be the Niagara Falls Comic Con at the Niagara Falls Convention Center.
Click here for ticket prices. And the venue is serviced by the Niagara Region Transit via stop numbers 6152 and 8434.
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The Oshawa Comicon will be held on the 31st of May, 2025 from 10am to 3pm at YWCA Durham and admission will be $5 or free kids 12 and under.
The venue is serviced by route 901 on Durham Regional Transit via bus stop number 661 which is a five minute walk away.
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The SJFM Vintage and Collectibles Market will be hosted by the St. Johns’ Farmers Market on Sunday, June 1st, 2025 from 8:30am to 1:30pm and this event is free.
This venue has its own bus stops, numbered 2780 and 3080, which are serviced by Routes 10 and 12 on Metrobus.
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The Peterborough Comicon will be held at the Peterborough Curling Club on the 1st of July, 2025, from 10am to 3pm and admission will be $5 or free kids 12 and under.
Unfortunately the nearest bus stops from this venue, 1302 and 1600, are a 15 minute walk away. But Route 7 does operate on Sundays on Peterborough Transit.
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And finally, The Junction Steel Wheels Record Show will be held on Sunday, June 1st, 2025 at Rainhard Brewing from 1pm to 5pm. And admission will be $5 or $10 for early entry at noon.
This venue is a ten minute walk away from the Gunns Loop where TTC Streetcars terminate.
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Please note that cash may be preferred at these event so you might want to keep an eye out for the nearest ATMs to the venue.
The Confusion about Tariffs
People who have never imported goods themselves for either personal use or for retail sale may be confused as to who pays tariffs but it is my experience that it is the recipient of an imported good that eventually pays freight, duties, tariffs and taxes.
I have personally imported books, compact discs, DVDs and blu-rays from abroad and none of the businesses have paid tariffs on my behalf unless that had done so previously to import these goods into their country, to then sell it to someone else.
No eBay or Amazon seller that I have purchased goods from has ever paid customs brokers for products made in their own country and this is how I had managed to save money for decades, as I’ve mentioned in a March 2010 page on this blog.
Instead of placing special orders at my local CD stores, which resulted in a considerable mark-up and delay in receiving the CD, I had taken advantage of a postal importation exemption that allowed me to import shipments valued at less than CA$20, duty and tax free.
No costly customs brokerage fees. Nothing. And it was advantageous on light shipments like that of a CD single, DVD or blu-ray, whose shipping and handling costs were low because they were light. And shipments from England were relatively inexpensive and fast as well.
But I digress…
Like duties and taxes, tariffs are only calculated and billed at the border, by custom brokerages working for the courier. And in my case it was Canada Post because I avoided the major couriers because of their higher brokerage fees. And to facilitate shipments, some companies like Amazon do have their own customs brokers, calculating and including an estimate on shipments to Canada.
Amazon Canada also provides estimates on goods that might be imported, so it is always the customer that ends up with the final bill, not the manufacturer of the product ordered.
After all, they’re the people buying the product and they’re willing to pay to import it mainly because it isn’t made or still available in their country.
Tariffs are based on demand and the British, French, Scandinavian and Australian compact discs, compact disc singles, DVDs and blu-rays that I purchased were not manufactured and distributed in Canada so I paid to import them. And had I purchased them via a retailer, they would have paid a distributor a markup to cover their payment of these fees, which would have been recouped from me by the retailer when I purchased the product there.
The same scheme applies to most products, including American dairy imports. But the Canadian dairy companies importing it to make products have yet to reach the threshold that would result in tariffs, the “tariff rate quota”, so they haven’t paid any tariffs on American dairy for decades, nor have their Canadian consumers until the retaliatory tariffs kicked in April 2025.
This 25% tariff has not been added to books, musical instruments, compact discs, DVDs or blu-rays made in the United States and hopefully that wont happen in the future. But I’ll keep an eye on the situation and update this blog accordingly if something happens.
I hope this helps people that were confused about the situation. And remember, shop around!
- What is a tariff? An Economist Explains
- How Tariffs Work – Export Development Canada
- The Smoot-Hawley Tarriff – United States Senate
